Report: December 2005

Dear Friend

Warm greetings from each and every one of us here at Double Joy Children's Farm, hoping that all is well with you.

Thanks

Kindly accept our sincere thanks for your continued support to this institution, both spiritually and materially. Without your kind support we would not be able to give these orphans food, shelter, clothing, good health and education.

Education

Our normal school programme stopped on 2 December 2005, when schools closed for the December holidays. Currently, we have 90 children residing on our compound. In the month of November 2005, 19 of our children sat their KCPE (Kenya certificate of primary education) and are waiting for their results, which we expect to come out later this month. After the results, some of the 19 children will join secondary schools, while some will join polytechnics. At the same time, 10 of our children who were in polytechnics and one boy who was in secondary school did their final examinations. We highly expect them to do well.

After doing Trade Test exams at the polytechnics, we buy them tools with which they open up their own workshops. Our children usually appreciate this very much since it gives them the starting point in future life after completing training. Many of our children like going to the polytechnics since after graduating they go home with something directly tangible for their future.

New children

In the month of November 2005, we admitted 20 new children. The new children were very desperate considering the fact that most of them were brought up by very old grandparents who were seemingly unable to provide their grandchildren with the basic necessities of life. Thanks to all our donors. All of the new children fitted quite well into the institution and are very happy being here.

Games

Since December is a school holiday here in Kenya, we encourage our children to play very many games like football, netball, volleyball and many other educational games.

Home visits

Our children visit their guardians on Saturdays from 8am to 5pm. This enables them to keep in touch with their guardians so that when they graduate from standard 8, polytechnics or secondary schools, they easily fit back into the families of their guardians. These home visits are done by the children on rotation, i.e. not all at once. The guardians are also allowed to visit the children to keep the family tie.

Entertainments

Our children are very well known when it comes to entertainments on different occasions. We have a very big bank of different entertainment items and our visitors are always fully entertained when they come visiting. We sometimes even get invitation letters from our provincial administrators asking our children to go and entertain on different public holidays. Our children have a wide range of dances, songs, poems, drama and many others.

Christian formation

We also encourage our children to attend church services so as to grow spiritually. Our Catholic Father for Madiany Parish usually makes a visit bringing us mass. This has been very highly welcome by our children, who love singing and dancing to the Lord.

This month we took eight children for confirmation into the Catholic church on 18 December. Our Anglican children also attend mass at Ranalo Parish.

Staff

All staff who work here are very happy. The staff always do their best to ensure that all the children here are kept happy. All staff love working as a team under the expert leadership of our Director, Mrs Hinde, who is full of encouragement to all of us. We are always very grateful to God for her.

Christmas and Happy New Year

We wish you a very happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year 2006. May God cover you with His holy grace all the time and bless you abundantly for your kindness to us here at Double Joy. Bye.

Stephen Onyang